St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford thinks the city must have a cultural affairs manager and can find the money for the position if “fat” is cut from the city’s budget. The city eliminated its cultural affairs director position, saving the $75,000 annual salary.

ST. PETERSBURG — Kathleen Ford recently offered red meat for a crowd of arts supporters seething over news that the city had eliminated its $75,000-a-year cultural affairs manager.

"When you have 70 city employees making more than $100,000 in the city of St. Petersburg, I think we can find the money to have somebody to manage and coordinate the arts," Ford told a standing-room-only crowd at a mayoral forum at the Studio@620. "It's just that important."

The implication from Ford, who is making her second run for mayor, is that there's fat to be cut from the city's highest wage earners. We'll get to that.

But first, her salary numbers.

Ford cites a Tampa Tribune database that tracks employee salaries of area governments to bolster her claim that 70 city employees make $100,000 or more. The database lists salaries of 15 local government agencies, including the cities of St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Largo, and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

The information, which can be sorted by government, salary or position, is a snapshot of a government's salary structure. For St. Petersburg, the information presented is from October 2008, says St. Petersburg city human resources director Gary Cornwell.

Indeed, it supports Ford's assertion. According to the database, 71 city employees made $100,000 or more. The top earner was Mayor Rick Baker, with $162,314. The list then trickles down through the city's deputy mayors, its police and fire chief, its attorneys. The library director made a little more than $103,000 a year, the same as the man who runs the city's golf courses.

What's worth noting is that the numbers changed slightly by the time Ford made her statement late last month. The people making $100,000 or more in the city totaled 68 in April. And with a mandatory 2.5 percent pay cut imposed by Baker as part of budget cuts, the number has dropped again. The city says 64 people now make $100,000 or more. (The figure includes only salary and not other possible perks, like use of a government vehicle).

But Ford's point is largely accurate. The implication behind the numbers is more difficult to support.

For high-earning positions, St. Petersburg compares itself with six Florida governments — the cities of Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Clearwater, and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. The Times reviewed salary data for Tampa, Clearwater and Pinellas County, and collected full-time employee statistics from the start of the current budget cycle for each government.

The analysis shows: Approximately 2.5 percent of St. Petersburg city employees make $100,000 a year or more. In Tampa, 3.2 percent of all city employees make $100,000 or more. For Pinellas County, the number is closer to 5 percent.

In fact, of the four governments the Times reviewed, only Clearwater had a lower percentage of high wage earners, at about 1.05 percent.

The city also provided its own analysis of high-wage earners at 11 Florida governments. That analysis found 2.4 percent of St. Petersburg workers made $100,000 or more, the fourth lowest percentage among the Florida governments surveyed.

Ford is close on the numbers, but she is slightly off on the broader point. St. Petersburg rates at the low end of similar-sized Florida governments when it comes to the number of employees making $100,000 or more. For that, we find Ford's statement Mostly True.

There is a reason why the air in Tampa Bay is filled with playoff talk. If Thursday night's 12-8 Bucs preseason win over the Jaguars is any indication, it's also going to be filled with footballs thrown by quarterback Jameis Winston.